Minors take car for spin, land in ICU

A 17-year-old boy, who was driving his family’s Swift Dzire without a driver licence and with his 12-year-old brother beside him, hit a roadside tree at Bangur Avenue off VIP Road on Sunday morning.

The boys were admitted to a private clinic where their condition was stated to be critical.

Police officers said the mishap could have been fatal — like the one in Lake Town last October, where a university student crushed an eight-year-old schoolboy while reversing her car.

“In both cases, the drivers committed the same mistake... pressed the accelerator while trying to slam the brakes,” said an officer of Lake Town police station.

After interrogating the boy who was driving the car the police came to know that he lost control while negotiating pedestrians and pressed the accelerator, instead of the brakes.

“The boy steered the wheel towards the left and the car swerved before hitting a tree,” he said.

According to the police, the sons of a Burrabazar trader had set out on a holiday drive around 9.30am. “They took the service road parallel to the VIP Road and drove towards Lake Town. The boy then dared to take VIP Road from Lake Town crossing and drove towards Bangur,” said another police officer.

The accident took place when the driver took a left from VIP Road to enter Bangur Avenue. “The boy could not control the car on the road sloping down at the intersection,” an eyewitness said.

Traffic volunteers on VIP Road and residents rescued the boys who lost conscious after the accident. “Both had skull fractures. We had to shift them to intensive care because of the nature of their injuries,” said a doctor of the healthcare unit.

House robbed

Burglars broke into a Dum Dum apartment and fled with valuables worth more than a lakh. Police said flat owner Indrajit Kumar Ghosh, 64, and his wife had gone to their son’s home in Salt Lake on Saturday night. Residents of the building spotted the broken lock on the collapsible gate of the apartment around 7am on Sunday.

Metro suicide bid

A man attempted suicide by jumping in front of a Kavi Subhash-bound train at Kalighat Metro station around 11.34am on Sunday. The driver managed to apply the emergency brakes and save the man. Metro services were disrupted for 10 minutes. The person was handed over to police.